Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Website Evaluation

It turns out that the way I have been evaluating websites has been on a fairly superficial level. Having completed my first assignment for ETL501 Information Environment, I now know what to look for when evaluating websites for students' and teachers' use. In the past, my main criteria for evaluating a website was whether or not the content was useful and pitched at a level suitable for the intended audience. I also took into account how easy it was to navigate around the site and how visually stimulating it was for learners.
Now, however, when I attempt to evaluate a website, I am armed with a checklist consisting of educational, reliability and technical criteria, enabling me to critically analyse how suitable the website is for the intended audience and whether or not it supports the teaching and learning taking place.